News you need to know

General News (Thu Nov 15): is a full-go this week coming off the team's bye, offensive coordinator John DeFilippo said Thursday, Nov. 15. Cook is expected to receive a strong workload in Week 11 against the Chicago Bears.

Week 11: at Chicago Bears

FBG says: Bad matchup. The Minnesota run game has been hit-or-miss throughout an injury-riddled start to 2018. To the rescue comes Dalvin Cook, who's healthy, rested, and fresh off an eruptive Week 9 (89 yards on just 10 rushes). Cook has been either hobbled or out for most of the year thus far but looked perfectly fine on his 70-yard scamper against the Lions. He led the team in snaps and touches and looks poised for an extended, if not dominant, workload. And his capabilities as the lead back aren't in question - over 6 NFL games with at least 50% of the snaps, he's averaged 76 yards at 4.69 per carry. Hurting his cause, though, is a front line that's played poorly all year and will likely be without left guard Tom Compton again. Latavius Murray will spell Cook, and he's been effective in spurts, picking up 4.53 a rush himself this season. He should fill in solidly, if unspectacularly, should Cook go down mid-game or otherwise find himself limited.
The Bears continue to dominate opposing run games week after week. Thus far, only one opposing runner - Frank Gore in a long overtime battle - has run for more than 51 yards in this matchup, and running backs as a whole are producing just 3.40 yards per attempt. In fact, Lions rookie Kerryon Johnson produced the first ground touchdown of the year against them just last Sunday. The Bears have benefited from a rather weak schedule of offenses, but there's no denying the improvement seen in nose Eddie Goldman on run downs, or the beyond-his-years play of rookie linebacker Roquan Smith. Smith is a lightning-fast playmaker who flows to the ball effortlessly, and he's already the centerpiece of 2018's stingiest run unit.

Recent Stats and Projections

WEEK

OPP

oSNAP

RSH

YD

TD

TARG

REC

YD

TD

FumL

Pts

9

vs DET

28

10

89

0

4

4

20

0

0

10.9

11

at CHI

0

9

12

0

3

3

-2

0

1

0

11

at CHI

PROJ-Dodds

*

12

*

*

3

*

*

*

*

11

at CHI

PROJ-Tremblay

*

11

*

*

3

*

*

*

*

11

at CHI

PROJ-Bloom

*

12

*

*

5

*

*

*

*

Weekly Performance vs RB 1, RB 12, RB 24, RB 36

Percentile ranks

Dalvin Cook's percentile rank in each category, among RB with more than 50 fantasy points.

Recent Game Summaries

2018 Week 9 vs DET (10 / 89 / 0 rush, 4 / 4 / 20 / 0 rec)

It was a breath of fresh air to see Cook back on the field and looking healthy. He was given an even split with 10 carries apiece with Murray and he had the second most targets on the team with 4 in the passing game. Cook's line looks great until we break it down a little further. His 89 yards rushing is a season high, but he also ripped off a 70-yard rush that made up most of those yards. From there, Cook only had 19 yards on 9 carries. His 70-yard run came out of the shotgun and he took the ball off the left tackle and followed his blockers down the sideline. It was nearly a touchdown, but Cook was tripped up and fell just short of the end zone. It is good to see his healthy legs and the burst of speed through the hole on this play, but on his other 9 carries he could not find a hole. The offensive line is the biggest detriment for Cook or any other running back for the Vikings. There was a lot of talk that Cook was going to get this week off going into the Bye, but the Vikings got a look at their back of the future. It was still Murray who got the ball around the goal line, and Cook did drop a pitch from Cousins in the 4th quarter. He took his eyes off the ball as he tried to turn up field. The fumble was officially credited to Cousins since Cook never had full control of the ball before it hit the ground. It is plays like that fumble that will keep Murray relevant for a few more weeks.

2018 Week 4 vs LAR (10 / 20 / 0 rush, 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 rec)

The talk all week was whether or not Cook was going to play after suffering a hamstring injury against Green Bay two weeks ago. He was finally cleared to play but it was known that he would be on a pitch count and not used fully this week. This ended up not being much of a problem with the way the rushing attack went. Kirk Cousins had a single rush (19 yards) that almost equaled Cooks total for the game (20 yards). There was no room to run up the middle and Cook looked slow trying to get to the corner. Cooks longest rush was 9 yards and that accounted for almost half of his yards. He was also not targeted in the passing game at all and did not play much at all in the second half. It has been a very tough season for Cook thus far and it does not look to get any easier next week against a tough Philadelphia rush defense.

2018 Week 2 vs GB (10 / 38 / 0 rush, 5 / 3 / 52 / 0 rec)

The Vikings were playing from behind for a good portion of this game and they never truly committed to the run. As a team, they ran the ball fewer than 20 times and never got any sort of rhythm going. Cook had more than double the carries of anyone else but only managed 3.8 yards per carry. He had a single 9-yard rush but was never able to break through into the second level. He did continue to show his ability to catch the ball out of the back field and ripped off a 24-yard catch and run, but he has to get things going on the ground. Cook has been running behind a patch work offensive line but has the ability to create plays on his own. There was one scary moment where he went down after a short run and the trainers came out to take a look. It appeared to only be a cramp and he was able to return to the game later, but it is a situation like this that may keep him on a pitch count early in the season. Cook will face a Bills defense that has been very giving to opposing running backs early in the season and should have the chance to get back on track.

2018 Week 1 vs SF (16 / 40 / 0 rush, 7 / 6 / 55 / 0 rec)

The big question coming into the week was whether Cook was going to be on a snap restriction. If he was, this plan went out the window on the first drive as he touched the ball on 6 of the first 9 plays of the game. The drive resulted in a punt, but it showed that the Vikings were committed to their second year back. Cook did not find much success on the ground behind a patched together offensive line but did show his threat of catching the ball out of the backfield hauling in 6 of his 7 targets. In a single game, Cook is already more than half way to his receiving totals from a year ago. On the ground, Cook could not find any room to run up the middle but did manage a 15-yard scamper off the right side for a first down. Cook also fumbled on this run and gave way to Latavius Murray for a few snaps before coming back into the game. His biggest contribution was a 17-yard catch and run swing pass out of the back field for another first down. The Vikings did spell him late in the game after an earlier fumble cost the team points, but it was only temporary as Cook still saw meaningful carries at the end of the game.